Photo by Tina Lynn
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Christine Bates
Recorded sales in the Town of Washington in January and February saw only one property over a million dollars exchange hands out of seven property sales with a carefully maintained and restored Mid Century Modern home on 309 Route 343 selling for $150,000 over the asking price of $2,550,000. According to the listing, the architecturally significant “Deck House” has an international cult following and only a few examples exist in the Hudson Valley.
Current listings in the Town of Washington offer little below $500,000 and a quantity of luxury homes including: 6 vacant land listings, 5 homes under $1 million, 6 under $5 million and 8 over $5 million. In the entire year of 2023 only six properties sold for over a million dollars.
January
16 Shunpike, 3 bedroom/2 bath home ready for renovation on 6.9 acres was sold for $266,000
3853 Route 82, 4 bedroom/2 bath home on 2.6 acres sold for $609,000
309 Route 343, Mid Century Modern 4 bedroom/4 bath home with 2,790 square feet on 11.4 acres sold for $2,700,000
5045 Route 82, 17.2 acres of vacant land in 2 parcels sold for $411,000
Oak Summit Road, a 1.93 acre rural residential lot sold for $82,500
February
3554 Route 82, 1 bedroom/1.5 bath home on 14.4 acres sold for $750,000
75-77 Altamont, 2 residences totaling 7,110 square feet with 7 bedrooms/5 bath purchased by the Ric and Paulina Ocasek in 2002 sold to Paulina Porizhova Ocasek for $997,376
Town of Washington real estate sales recorded as sold between January 1, 2024, and February 29, 2024, sourced from Dutchess County Real Property Tax Service Agency with property details from Dutchess Parcel Access. Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Salesperson with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in CT and NY.
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Submitted
MILLBROOK — Last Thursday April 18, Bill Jeffway, Executive Director of the Dutchess County Historical Society, delivered a lecture titled “Town of Washington: Antebellum Free Black Community” to a capacity crowd at the Millbrook Library.
A graduate of Wesleyan College, he is the author of “This Place Called Milan and Invisible People, Untold Stories: Voices of Rhinebeck’s Historic Black Community.” He writes regularly for the Northern Dutchess News.
Jeffway, who is a dynamic and improvisational lecturer, offered many asides and anecdotes. Jeffway teaches a course on Living History at Marist College.
The Living History movement emphasizes the voices and perspectives of people from the past through letters, postcards, deeds, court records, and cemetery stones.
In 1776 slavery was banned in Dutchess County, yet the ban was not strictly enforced. It took about twenty years for the Dutch and British to divest completely. Even some Quakers were slow to relinquish slaves, despite the strong opposition to slavery among most Quakers.
Abused white women sometimes took refuge in the Black community. In 1782 Mary Mott married at age sixteen; she left her husband in 1809, staying at first with various friends. She eventually was given long-term secret shelter by a Black couple, working as a seamstress.
Jeffway noted that many free Blacks, as well as slaves, lived in Poughkeepsie where there were eight Black Churches, due to its prominence in river commerce and travel. There were local instances of Southerners boat-kidnapping free Black youngsters. An important free Black boat captain worked the Hudson River around this time.
On the eastern border of Dutchess County, slaves worked on some farms. In the Smithfield Valley, according to a letter, Mrs. Smith had at least three personal slaves serving her at her wedding. Jeffway estimated about thirty agricultural slaves in that neighborhood in the early part of the 18th century.
Jeffway noted that there was a small Black cemetery in Lithgow, and in the 1870s there was a Black community in Clove Valley in northern Union Vale, just south of Millbrook. At that time Black women were predominantly the owners of land in the Black community.
Shortly after the appearance of the automobile, Mr. Collins, a Black man, ran a successful taxi and bus transportation service between Millbrook and Poughkeepsie. His wife ran a laundry service, with washing machines in their backyard, for the wealthy ladies of Millbrook.
Manet Fowler (1916-2004) was the first Black woman to acquire a doctorate in cultural anthropology. The U.S. government assigned her to survey Dutchess County on the “readiness” of people of color to serve in World War II.
By 1944, inspired by Lincoln, the Millbrook Black Republican Club was formed.
Elements of this lecture drew on the Millbrook Library’s Archive on African Americans in Dutchess County.
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Maya Hector
MILLERTON — On Friday, April 26 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., facilitators Hana’ Maaiah and Brittany Levers will lead a workshop on beekeeping at Rock Steady Farm, a queer owned and operated vegetable farm at 41 Kaye Road in Millerton. Through games, demonstrations, interactive activities, and discussions, participants will gain hands-on experience and knowledge while exploring decolonizing practices and reimagining the relationship with nature.
Hana’ Maaiah, the Food Systems Manager at Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, New York, brings a decade of farming experience and a passion for advocating for farmers and educating youth.
Prior to her work at Soul Fire Farm, she was the assistant farm manager at a small urban farm in Birmingham, Alabama, called Jones Valley Teaching Farm where she was paid to take a master beekeeping class.
“I’ve always been entranced by bees,” she shared. “I think they’re fascinating, and we know their power within the food system. They prop us up, right? More than half of our food system wouldn’t even exist without bees.”
The class was comprised almost entirely of older, white men, despite Birmingham’s majority black population, highlighting systemic barriers faced by BIPOC individuals in accessing agricultural resources and knowledge. She reflected, “I kept telling myself ‘You’re here for the bees, you’re here for the bees.’”
Pep talk aside, Maaiah eventually left the class but the experience has informed her teaching style. She shared, “You have to be in a space where you can feel supported, you can learn, you can ask questions, and that the information feels like it’s something you want to continue to pass forward.”
Maaiah found a new class, a bee mentor, and after four years of beekeeping at Jones Valley, she kept bees in her own backyard “because they’re just so hypnotic,” she mused.
Maaiah’s perseverance and commitment to beekeeping not only speak to her passion for the craft but also underscore the importance of creating inclusive spaces within agriculture where diverse voices are valued and supported. She is also thrilled to share that bees will be arriving at Soul Fire farm next month.
Maaiah met Brittany Levers at a mushroom workshop in Troy, New York. When Ainhoa Woodley, a farmer and Farm Education Manager at Rock Steady put out a call for skill sharing in the community, Maaiah and Levers decided to pair up and share their knowledge.
Brittany Levers will also facilitate the April 26 workshop.Noelia Salinetti of Woven Roots Farm
“We’re really trying not to do a crash course in a business sense. It’s not going to be a ‘How to Harvest Honey’ class or something,” Maaiah laughed. “But if you’ve ever been curious to kind of just test the waters, then let’s explore.” Levers added, “Even if they don’t decide to beekeep themselves, they serve a pertinent purpose in our ecosystem. I’m looking forward to spreading the joy and wonder that bees give me.”
In this beginner’s workshop, simplicity is key. “We want it to feel as possible as possible to be a beekeeper,” said Maaiah. She also posed the important question, “How can we reshape our practices to align with the needs of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities and future generations of farmers?” She went on to describe that part of the work is to center the decolonization of language around the practice of beekeeping. “What would it look like to rename colony, worker bee, drone bee, and queen bee?” as examples, Maaiah asked.
So, this workshop will be a far cry from the first class Maaiah experienced back in Birmingham.
There will instead be an emphasis on letting people know that they belong, and that beekeeping is ancient wisdom BIPOC people have been practicing for centuries. “We’re gonna just have a lot of fun,” she continued. “We actually have a surplus of information; we just need to share it. And the bees will do the rest.”
For more information and to sign up for the workshop, visit www.rocksteadyfarm.com
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Spring in their step
Apr 24, 2024
Maud Doyle
Spring lambs at Black Sheep Hill Farm in Pine Plains demonstrate their cavorting skills Saturday, April 20 as part of the Dutchess County Sheep & Wool Growers Association spring farm tour that included several sheep farms in the Hudson Valley.
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